Three quarters past midnight, the moon was bright and the stars sparse.
Getting up from the bed, Du Chengfeng always felt that his recent schedule was a bit peculiar. This habit of sleeping during the day and being active at night didn't seem very healthy. However, he always felt that sharpening knives was best done at night, especially when the moonlight was bright. Sitting quietly in the courtyard sharpening knives allowed him to immerse himself more easily into the task.
It was during this time, when he was in the best state, that Du Chengfeng once again took out the long saber named Broken Horse.
With the long saber in hand, Du Chengfeng first practiced the saber technique known as the "Dragon and Tiger Stance" from his memory.
Although the original owner of this long saber, Liu Qingyun, had given the saber technique a rather imposing name, at its root, it wasn't overly complicated – the so-called dragon and tiger referred to the posture of the spine, the tiger being tense and the dragon being extended. Between tension and extension, the whole body would act like a spring, fully converting the weight of feet on the ground into the power of forward slashing.
Though the principle was simple, the actual application of this Dragon and Tiger Stance was not just that. Although Liu Qingyun himself excelled in the extremely swift draw of the sword, Du Chengfeng also realized during sharpening that Liu Qingyun had practiced other techniques using the tension-extension method.
For instance, "Tiger Leap" was a method for quickly pouncing on enemies. For those who mastered it, a five-step distance required only one rise and fall. Or the "Flying Dragon Saber", a stance that extended the range of a slash; once mastered, it could allow an extra foot of slash distance in the midst of tension and extension.
However, there were some tension-extension applications that even Liu Qingyun couldn't use.
"...Dragon Form Slash?"
Recalling the saber technique in his mind and then looking at the Broken Horse Long Saber in his hand, Du Chengfeng quickly realized the reason.
The saber technique named Dragon Form Slash involved pouring all the force onto the blade in a cleaving motion. The spine extended and contracted like a soaring dragon, while the hands chopped down like a descending tiger. It was considered the pinnacle strike of Dragon and Tiger Stance and the mightiest slash envisioned by Liu Qingyun – but this domineering slash extending from the theory of tension-extension was the one slash Liu Qingyun couldn't execute.
At its core, it was because the Broken Horse couldn't withstand such a move.
The overly long blade gave the Broken Horse a tremendous slashing range, but it also meant that during powerful and heavy chops, the front end of the blade could likely shatter on the spot. Liu Qingyun once attempted this move with a five-foot wooden saber similar in length to the Broken Horse, and all the wooden sabers without exception, broke.
Facing this, Liu Qingyun had only two options: either switch to a relatively shorter but sturdier saber, or abandon the move and continue to research other techniques.
After weighing the pros and cons, Liu Qingyun ultimately chose to abandon the move.
The advantage in attack range offered by a five-foot long saber was simply too great. After solving the speed issue of drawing the saber, this advantage in attack range allowed Liu Qingyun to achieve absolute domination in most battles.
Therefore, even though he saw a path further ahead, Liu Qingyun ultimately chose to seek another path.
And this choice, in a sense, also destined Liu Qingyun's defeat in that duel.
"Sigh..."
Thinking of this, Du Chengfeng couldn't help but sigh.
In his view, Liu Qingyun, who could rise from being a poor swordsman with barely one coin to his name to earning such a formidable reputation, was not lacking in ability or skill. It was only this cautious and indecisive habit that persisted.
Indeed, in ordinary times, this might be seen as prudent and cautious, but in the split second of life-and-death combat, if one can't make a swift judgment, the only outcome is blood soaking the earth, tears spilling into the sky.
This was also the greatest difference between Liu Qingyun and the swordsman Cui Yuan.
Swordsman Cui Yuan, though slightly mentally unstable, used his immense willpower to suppress the Wind-Riding Sword in his hand, which had already taken over two hundred lives. It was only during these life-and-death duels that he would come here to sharpen his knife to maintain the best condition.
But Liu Qingyun was different.
Accustomed to being cautious and indecisive, Liu Qingyun couldn't suppress the Evil Qi of the Broken Horse. Therefore, like ordinary swordsmen, he often had to spend a lot of money to hire a grinding master to help him sharpen the saber.
And this was another reason why Du Chengfeng took out this saber.
"Interesting..."
Squinting at the now brightly polished Broken Horse Long Saber in his hand, Du Chengfeng mused.
During the day while sharpening the saber and feeling the spirit of the long saber, he indeed sensed everything the saber had experienced. But those moments of slaughter, those scenes of taking lives, always seemed somewhat blurred – like the spreading ink in an ink wash painting, he could sense something had diluted the frightening aspect.
Not only the frightening aspect.
Logically, while sensing the saber's history, he should also feel the sharpening process at that time. But this was precisely what intrigued Du Chengfeng most, yet it was a complete blank, as if it never happened.
"It can't be that the saber lost its memory, right?"
Thinking of this, Du Chengfeng couldn't help but chuckle and shake his head.
A saber losing its memory? This sounded somewhat unlikely. After all, he had already attempted before sleeping during the day, and even if the weapons in his hand were sharpened again, he could still witness the memories attached to the weapons.
In other words, at least his own sharpening wouldn't make the weapons lose their memory.
"Which means, it's not the process of sharpening itself that's the problem."
Du Chengfeng quickly made a judgment.
So, since the sharpening process itself wasn't an issue, the only distinction between the two would be the method.
Apparently, the technique used by the grinding master Liu Qingyun sought was completely different from Du Chengfeng's own, leading to the weapons crafted by both showing entirely different conditions.
"How exactly was this achieved?"
Du Chengfeng grew increasingly puzzled.
Thus, he placed the Broken Horse under the moonlight.
Indeed, regarding the memory of being sharpened, the Broken Horse truly lost its memory, but every sharpening inevitably left marks on the blade.
Now, Du Chengfeng's task was to feel through the sharpening traces left on the long saber to reverse-engineer the technique used by that grinding master at the time.
This perception was extremely subtle, almost imperceptible, and could only be comprehended in the quiet of midnight.
During the process of gently stroking the blade with his palm, fleeting images appeared in Du Chengfeng's mind.
There was a bowl of ink, and a grinding stone.